David Ragan plans to corner Tony Stewart
Quote selected text Published October 27th, 2006 in NASCAR News
With last week’s on-track run-in with Tony Stewart still fresh in his mind, David Ragan came to Atlanta with reconciliation on his mind. Knowing that it might be hard to get Stewart alone, Ragan bid $5,750 at Thursday night’s Speedway Children’s Charities auction to buy the pre-race ride around the track with Stewart.
“I’ve never spoken to Tony before; I’m kind of happy he knows my name actually, but not for these reasons,” Ragan said. “This will give us a chance to talk a little bit.”
Ragan, the son of former NASCAR driver Ken Ragan, triggered a three-car wreck last weekend in Martinsville, taking out Ken Schrader and Tony Stewart, angering both veterans. Stewart had a few choice words for the young driver after the accident, and Ragan knows that he can’t start his career in NEXTEL Cup making enemies.
“Tony, he criticized me a lot after last week, and when a champion does that, it’s good to go talk to him,” Ragan said. “I think I’ll ask him his thoughts, what I should have done different, just introduce myself so that if I step out of line in the future he’ll come and talk to me about it.”
Ragan was expected to attempt to qualify for both Saturday’s Easy Care Vehicle Service Contracts 200 Craftsman Truck race and Sunday’s Bass Pro Shops 500 NEXTEL Cup race, but NASCAR did not approve him to compete in the upper level event. He is still hopeful that he will be approved before next weekend’s race in Texas.
“I was disappointed, but at least I’ll be running the truck race here,” Ragan said. “I’m happy; I’m just 20 years old, and I’m here in the truck series.”
- Ragan to do PSA to promote safety
- David Ragan to test at Infineon Raceway
- Stewart to go Distance at Pocono
- Montoya blames Stewart for coming-together at Texas
- Ragan has his blood type on uniform
Now that is pretty cool! Ragan pretty much realizes that to make it in this sport you have to take responsibility. He is all for taking responsibility if you cause an accident. Of course you don’t want to confront those who you wreck immediately, but you must go to them and discuss what happened and get it all worked out, otherwise you can make for some very unhappy drivers. I hope Tony took him under his wing and spoke to him as a student and takes the chance to help mold him into an awesome driver. If only we had more drivers like that. In my opinion he did it right too…If Tony is the charitable man that he seems to be showing everyone, then he will be impressed in Ragan’s actions. Nice idea huh?